


i guess we're partners in crime

by IWasMeantToFeel



Category: Carmilla (Web Series), Carmilla - All Media Types, Carmilla - J. Sheridan Le Fanu
Genre: AU, Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Kids AU, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-11
Updated: 2015-10-11
Packaged: 2018-04-25 23:03:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,950
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4980070
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IWasMeantToFeel/pseuds/IWasMeantToFeel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“we’re both single parents with 8 year olds and have been called to their principle’s office because they teamed up and sold condoms as balloons to their classmates” au</p>
            </blockquote>





	i guess we're partners in crime

**Author's Note:**

> Got this off an AU prompts blog because I was so low on inspiration. Those things are super helpful if you’re ever stuck for ideas ;)  
> Enjoyyy

Carmilla was worried. She hurried down the endless empty corridors, passing classroom after classroom. This was the first time she’d ever been called into Inigo’s school, and she had no idea why she was here. The principal had just said that he needed a word with her. It could be anything. _Her son could be hurt. _She walked faster at that thought. When she reached the door of the principal’s office, she noticed another woman waiting outside, staring intently at the floor. She looked about Carmilla’s age, although she was tiny, with long straight hair and a cute shirt. Carmilla guessed that she was the receptionist, or something… although Carmilla would definitely remember a receptionist who looked like that. She looked up as Carmilla approached.__

“Hey,” the woman said, in greeting.

“Hey, cutie. Um… Is the principal busy?”

The woman blushed, for no apparent reason. “Yeah, he’s talking to our kids.” Not the receptionist, then.

Carmilla glanced through the window and saw the back of Inigo’s head, next to a much smaller girl, whose hair practically reached her butt. That must be the woman’s child. Maybe she was the infamous Jessy, who Carmilla had been hearing about every evening since the start of the year.

“Uh oh,” Carmilla smirked. “I guess they’re in trouble.”

“You don’t sound too upset about that.” The woman looked at her questioningly.

“Neither do you, sweetheart.”

The woman blushed again. Oh. Maybe she should lay off on the nicknames. Although she was kind of enjoying the response she was getting.

“I know that I’ve brought Jessy up right,” the woman said. “If she’s in trouble, either there’s a very good reason, or it’s nothing serious.”

So it was Jessy. “I feel the same about Inigo. He hasn’t got a mean bone in his body - unless someone tries to hurt his friends. When you’re sending them out into the big wide world… you’ve got to be able trust them, you know? And I know that I can.”

God, that was a speech and a half. She hadn’t meant to say all that. This was the most sociable she’d been with anyone other than her best friend LaFontaine and her own son in months. But the woman was looking at her with a bit of recognition now. Evidently Jessy had been blabbing on about Inigo just as much as he had about her.

The woman held out her hand. “I’m Laura Hollis.”

“Carmilla Karnstein,” she said, taking the hand with a grin and shaking it. She couldn’t help but notice how well Laura’s hand fit in hers. They stared at each other, not speaking, until Carmilla started noticing all sorts of things that it probably wasn’t normal to notice, like how Laura’s eyes had flecks of gold in them, and she was wearing little owl earrings, and… Suddenly the door to the office opened. The two of them pretty much jumped backwards.

“Sorry to keep you waiting,” the principal sniffed, taking in the sight before him and wrinkling his nose slightly. “Come on in.”

They allowed themselves to be guided into the overly warm office, and sat down in the two empty seats on either side of their kids. Inigo looked up at Carmilla with huge, guilty eyes.

“Sorry, Mom,” he whispered. She rubbed his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic smile. Whatever it was, it couldn’t be that bad.

“So why are we here, Mr Johnson?” Laura asked. Straight down to business. Her tone of voice was completely different from the one she’d been using with Carmilla just seconds ago, and Carmilla felt a glow inside her at that.

“Jessy and Inigo have been behaving very badly over the past two weeks. Had I been made aware of this earlier, it would most certainly have been stopped, but unfortunately I only discovered their little activity this afternoon.”

“And what would this activity be?” Laura asked briskly. She was so protective of Jessy. Of Inigo. It warmed Carmilla’s heart.

The principal looked between the two of them, then lowered his voice to an ominous level. “They have been blowing up condoms, _with their mouths, _and selling them as balloons to their classmates.”__

A deathly silence followed, as the two kids looked worriedly at their mothers.

Then Carmilla snorted. “Sorry,” she said, but a laugh was bubbling up inside her. _Condoms as balloons. Oh god. _She looked over the other woman - Laura - and noticed that she too was trying not to laugh, smirking and letting her smooth honey-coloured hair fall across her face in an attempt to hide it. She looked gorgeous. _Wait, what? _____

“I hope you know this is a serious matter,” the principal went on, looking down his nose as the two of them. “They have taken an awful lot of money from their classmates. And I don’t even want to think about where they got the condoms from.” He sniffed again.

Carmilla knew the implication, and resented it. Single mother equals inadequate parenting. Especially for a boy. It made anger bubble up inside her. 

“I know it must be hard for Inigo without a father figure,” Mr Johnson continued, now only addressing her. Carmilla grit her teeth. She had been expecting this to come up. “He only socialises with Miss Hollis here, do you know that? He doesn’t stand up for himself with his fists. That isn’t the right way for a bright young man to grow up.”

Carmilla was about to say something that a) should not be heard by children and b) was probably not going to help Inigo’s case, when Laura stepped in. “I thought that the pupils here were going to start business classes next year, Mr Johnson, or was that just a rumour?”

“No, it’s true, but what does that have to do with…”

“Well, it looks like Jessy and Inigo have started a year early. Enthusiastic learners, you might say,” Laura said. She was smiling, but it was tight-lipped and steely. She was fierce. Carmilla loved it.

“It does seem to me that this is the sort of behaviour you should be encouraging, Mr Johnson,” Carmilla said, as politely as she could, although inside she was still fuming at what he had been saying about her and her son. “It’s very… enterprising.” 

Laura giggled. She _giggled. _Carmilla looked across at her and they shared a private smile.__

“I think you’re deliberately missing the point,” the principal huffed. “These two have practically been robbing their classmates of money.”

“It was only 20 cents a balloon!” Jessy piped up indignantly. Carmilla nearly laughed out loud again. She was almost as spirited as her mother.

“You’re going to have to pay back the money, I hope you realise that,” Mr Johnson told them.

Carmilla looked at the kids. “It’s in a cookie tin in Jessy’s locker,” Inigo said sulkily, pouting. “We gave them all receipts and everything.”

“They gave them receipts,” Carmilla said pointedly, raising one eyebrow. “Very professional.”

Mr Johnson huffed again. “As long as you return that money, I think we’re finished here.”

Laura stood up quickly, grabbing Jessy’s hand. Carmilla followed.

“Thank you for your time!” the principal called after them, noticeably sarcastically, as they left. Neither of them replied; they just walked. When they were a little way down the corridor and out of earshot of the Evil Headmaster, Inigo leapt onto Carmilla and wrapped his arms and legs around her.

“Wow, watch it matey, you’re not as small as you used to be,” Carmilla warned, but she was chuckling to herself as she set him down. Laura and Jessy watched the whole scene, amused.

“Thank you, Mommy, you saved us!” Inigo said.

“Don’t forget Laura,” Carmilla said, nodding at her.

“And Laura too! Thank you Laura,” Inigo said earnestly.

“You’re welcome,” Laura replied, throwing Carmilla a wink. Carmilla felt her throat go dry. God, she really liked this woman. But she was straight and married, with an eight-year-old kid. She had absolutely no chance. She shouldn’t even be thinking about it.

“What were you even getting the money for, babe?” Carmilla asked to distract herself, ruffling Inigo’s messy dark brown hair.

“We wanted to buy a camper van,” Jessy chirped up. “So that we could all go on vacation together. Inigo was going to paint it all different colours and I was going to fix all the engine so that it worked properly.” She scowled. “Only now we don’t have any money so we can’t.”

“That is a shame,” Laura agreed, almost sadly. “But there’s plenty of time in the future for camper vans. And now it’s home time, so go grab your bag and your coat with Inigo.” 

The two children ran off down the empty hallway to the cloakroom, leaving Laura and Carmilla together.

“Our kids make pretty good partners in crime, huh?” Laura smiled. 

“Yeah,” Carmilla laughed. “I’ve been hearing a lot about Jessy from Inigo. I think she’s really been improving his time at school - he used to find it a bit difficult to make friends.” Again, she didn’t know why she was telling an almost stranger all this. She never normally talked this much to people she didn’t know. But Laura had sympathetic eyes and she was a good listener, so maybe that was it.

“Same with Jessy. The other girls didn’t like her much because she’s a bit of a tomboy. She didn’t like them either,” Laura added, laughing.

“I guess they’re good for each other, then.”

“It sure looks like it,” Laura commented wryly, gesturing to where the two were playfully hitting each other at the end of the corridor, and Jessy was fending Inigo off with surprisingly forceful kicks. The two of them grinned at the sight.

“Jessy seems like a great kid. You and your husband have definitely done a good job with her,” Carmilla said, without really meaning to.

“I haven’t got a husband.”

“Oh?” So now she was just non-platonically interested in a straight girl, instead of a married straight girl. Marginally less bad, but still towards the destined-for-disaster end of the scale.

“Nope.” Laura swept her hair behind the shoulders, as if preparing to say something. “I’m gay actually.”

Carmilla’s heart literally jumped in her chest. She actually had a chance with this amazing woman?

“Really? Uh… me too!”

“Are you kidding?” Laura looked incredulous.

“Are you saying my sexuality is a joke?” Carmilla said teasingly.

“Of course not!” Laura said. “I’m just saying that it’s pretty unbelievable to meet someone incredibly sexy and gay around here.” Her hand flew up to cover her mouth. “Oops.”

“Didn’t mean to say that out loud, cutie?”

“No,” Laura said, blushing deep red.

“Would it make you less embarrassed if I said you’re not bad yourself?” Carmilla winked, suddenly realising how close they were.

“Uh… yes.”

“You’re not bad yourself.”

“Why thank you.”

Carmilla decided to just take the leap. “Do you maybe want to go out for coffee sometime, cupcake?”

“Are you seriously suggesting a mother’s meeting?” Laura laughed, her eyes sweeping up and down Carmilla’s black-leather-clad body sceptically.

“No. Definitely not suggested that,” Carmilla murmured, taking a step closer and brushing a stray lock of honey blonde hair out of Laura’s face, letting her finger trace her jawline slowly. Laura might make her slightly more nervous than pretty girls usually do, but she knows that she hasn’t lost her touch when Laura gives a distinct shiver. She pulls away. “Give me your phone. I’ll put my number in.”

“And then I can text you about our mother’s meeting?” Laura said, fake-brightly, an imitation of the worst kind of playground mothers.

“Don’t do that, it’s such a turn off,” Carmilla winked yet again.

“If you say so.”


End file.
